To end poverty, we need education. The better educated children and teens are, the better will be their quality of life. Poverty can be overcome through effective education. Reading is essential for quality education. At present, the Department of Education states that about 64% of children across the nation cannot read at grade level by 4th grade. We need to change how we teach children to read.

Failure is unacceptable, especially when we have the means to teach children to read. Children must be taught phonemic awareness before they can learn to read; research has proven that we have effective methods for teaching phonemic awareness. Whole language, “look say,” and other methods that use memorization of word lists do not teach phonemic awareness. If your child is being sent home with a list of words to memorize each week, go to your school administration and ask that they change how they are teaching reading.

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Elaine Clanton Harpine, Ph.D.

Elaine is a program designer with many years of experience helping at-risk children learn to read. She earned a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (Counseling) from the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.